Marcello's Pizzeria

I’m so glad I get through every week. With non stop catching up with readings and assignments being due every other day .. plus crunching numbers all day at work..I think I’m entitled to a much needed break so I decided to reward myself!

So I’m rarely in Vaughan. Actually now that I think about it, I’m only in Vaughan once a year and that is for Wonderland’s Halloween Haunt. But because I decided to reward myself, we decided to venture off to Vaughan. No, we didn’t go to Wonderland because I insisted we’d visited a particular Italian restaurant that has been on my radar for almost a year.

So we decided to make it an early dinner only because I know the restaurant gets crazy packed around 6 pm and I didn’t feel like waiting. MP restaurant was cozy – decorated with brick themed walls and wooden tables.

The hostess was friendly, she quickly seated us by the window. Our server on the other hand was not so enthusiastic about serving us. He didn’t really go through or even recommend anything on the menu until I asked. He was just quite and did not smile. Well, not until I took my camera and started shooting around. Once he noticed it, he asked me why I was taking pictures and then slowly started to engage in a conversation with us and became more personable. Anyways, moving onto food…

I noticed other tables around us started off with a bread basket. We didn’t get one…

Frittura Di Calamari w/ side salad ($14.50)

This appetizer was a great start to our meal. It can be made without a side salad for $10.50.

We choose to start off with a caesar salad and I’m glad we did because it’s always a safe option. The salad was lightly tossed with a more than usual portion of parmesan cheese (the more the merrier!)

The calamari, served piping hot, was very addicting. Lightly battered with the perfect amount of seasoning. It did not come with any side sauce – but I didn’t need it anyways

We finished the appetizer no problem

Penne alla Vodka ($12.50)

penne pasta with leeks and pancetta served in a vodka tomato cream sauce

WOW. first off, the vodka tomato cream sauce was delectable. I totally enjoyed the bold and creaminess flavours; the penne was cooked to a perfect al dente

I am someone that rarely orders pasta without a protein – in fact most of the time I order pastas with some sort of seafood – but this penne was so delicious it didn’t need anything else to take away from its taste.

Second picture was taken after parmesan was lightly sprinkled across

Pizza al pollo ($13.50)

tomato sauce, goat cheese spinach, grilled chicken, sundried tomatoes

Okay so to be fair, I don’t perfer goat cheese to begin with but ordered the pizza anyways thinking there wouldn’t be that much. I was wrong. In fact, as you can see below, there was a generous amount of goat cheese going around the pizza. Oops…

We both thought the pizza was alright (he enjoys the goat cheese) – I usually don’t enjoy crusts because I usually find it too chewy and a bit bland. I would have preferred the crust to be a bit thinner – then I would have inhaled it.

Last but not least, we ended our meal with a Tiramisu made in house. I personally found the Tiramisu to be learning towards the softer and soggy side. Apparently Tiramisus that are authentic are suppose to be softer. I’m probably just used to the having them with more texture. But nonetheless, it was a rich dessert that ended the dinner perfectly.

So because we completely demolished the appetizer we didn’t have as much room and ended up packing a portion of our mains away. When our bill arrived I was relatively surprised at the reasonable price. Nowadays its rare to find pastas with this kind of quality range around the $15 mark (My penne alla vodka was only $12.50). Its a great value and I expect we’ll return soon but will hope for a more pleasant service next time around.